


For Each Other

by EssayOfThoughts



Series: MCU Maximoff Oneshots [84]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Avengers: Infinity War speculation, Betrayal, Codependency, Gen, Infinity Gauntlet, Infinity Gems, Look this is a legit theory of mine ok
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-04
Updated: 2016-07-04
Packaged: 2018-07-21 14:02:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,930
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7390108
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EssayOfThoughts/pseuds/EssayOfThoughts
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Wanda has learned to live without her brother, learned to accept his loss. It aches, some days, and every night after nightmares, but she has learned to <i>live</i> and that is all Pietro would have asked of her.</p><p>She has learned to <i>live</i> with this state of affairs, but now…<br/> <br/>  <i>(“Bring me the Mind Stone and I will give you back your brother.”)</i></p><p>There has never been anything they would not do for each other.</p>
            </blockquote>





	For Each Other

**Author's Note:**

  * For [wandasmaximoffs](https://archiveofourown.org/users/wandasmaximoffs/gifts).



**i.  
** Wanda walks, Wanda flies. Wanda makes her way towards Thanos with the Mind Stone held cradled in her scarlet.

_(“Bring me the Mind Stone and I will give you back your brother.”)_

She hates this (loves this), loathes what Thanos has made her do for this small chance (but she needs it, needs it like life, she needs Pietro back like she does breath). Vision, now, most assuredly hates her, or will, if she manages to get the stone back to him after this all. (She cannot stop thinking of how small he looked, crumpled on the floor, his forehead haemorrhaging a not-blood fluid in the void where the stone had rested.)

Wanda has learned to live without her brother, learned to accept his loss. It aches, some days, and every night after nightmares, but she has learned to _live_ and that is all Pietro would have asked of her.

She has learned to _live_ with this state of affairs, but now…

_(“Bring me the Mind Stone and I will give you back your brother.”)_

There has never been anything they would not do for each other.

 

* * *

 

 **ii.**  
Wanda’s head is bowed as she kneels, scarlet cradling the Mind Stone out in front of her where Thanos may see it.

 _Take it_ , she thinks like acid. _Give me back my brother. Do not ask more of me_.

Thanos smiles, teeth like gravestones, neat in an ominous, morbid row. The Gauntlet rests in front of him, five stones already shining in their sockets.

“The last piece,” he says, gesturing to it. “Would you do the honours?”

(Wanda knows, deep within, _this is not an honour_.)

 

* * *

 

 **iii.**  
Pietro brought back is the first thing Thanos does with his completed Gauntlet. Thanos slips his hand into the Gauntlet, lifts it, lets the magic of the stones shimmer over the metal as his fingers flex and twist and suddenly Pietro is there, crashing into the world like he had never been gone.

“Offer made, bargain met, conditions kept,” Thanos says, and the twins embrace once more.

 

* * *

 

 **iv.**  
Wanda cannot count the number of times people have tried to take her brother from her. When they were small people would try to tease Pietro away from her, offer him games to try to take his attention. Even before they were ten, even before they lost their parents, Pietro had always chosen to stay beside her. They were twins, he said, and so it was wrong for them to be apart.

When they were ten, when they did lose their parents, the orphanages and the fosters didn’t like how they clung to each other. _We have no one left_ , they would take turns saying, small and soft and quiet and true. _Please. Please don’t take us from each other_.

They put them in separate rooms, when there was space, and tutted each time they found them curled around each other after nightmares. At school they were shunted into different classes and Pietro raced down corridors to wait for her after each period. On the streets gangs wanted to collect Pietro, shun Wanda, whispered _witch_ and promises of burning. Wanda let the flames reflect in her eyes and cursed them each under her breath.

In the castle, stuck in different cells, in school, in different classrooms, in battle with Pietro racing and Wanda still, with _death_ binding them apart by Ultron’s hand - _separate, separate, separate_.

Thanos does not separate them.

 

* * *

 

 **v.** **  
** Wanda waits for Thanos to sleep before she speaks of everything to Pietro. Thanos has the Gauntlet, cradles the stone that awoke their powers in in his fist and Wanda is all too aware of what that can mean.

(One stone, she could counter one with her scarlet, break Cho free of it’s magic with her own magic born of it. But two stones, three, all collected six, their power woven together in the most intricate plait of power she has yet seen?)

(Wanda knows she is strong, knows she is powerful.)

(Wanda knows she is not so strong as that.)

Wanda pads on silent feet to Pietro’s side, strokes his hair back with one fingertip. Pietro’s eyes are open in a moment.

 

* * *

 

 **vi.**  
“Show me,” he asks, and Wanda’s mind twists and shakes free of the shackles she had made for it. ( _No minds no minds anymore, not without Pietro, not after his death-_ but now, now he is alive, now he is asking.)

(There has never been anything they would not do for each other.)

 

* * *

 

 **vii.** **  
** Pietro sees the war in his sister’s mind. Sees Wanda’s time without him, Wanda trapped, Wanda blamed, Wanda fighting and locked up and fearful and hateful, Wanda his sister all he had vowed she should never have to be again.

 _No._ he thinks, watching the memories arraying in her mind.

 _Halt._ he thinks, pausing the memories to watch in closer detail, learning who he should hate.

 _Reset_. he thinks, and binds himself to Wanda’s side once more.

Thanos’ words, his promise to Wanda, slip across his sister’s mind like an oil spill.

_(“Bring me the Mind Stone and I will give you back your brother.”)_

He sees the war in her mind, new loyalties fighting feebly against the old. They do not have the foundations their bond does, do not have the strength and depth and breadth. In Wanda’s mind her scarlet disentangles from the colours of team, reaches towards the blue she holds as dear as life.

Pietro feels Wanda’s sorrow, Wanda’s grief, as she tears the stone from Vision’s brow.

(There has never been anything they would not do for each other.)

 

* * *

 

 **viii.**  
The notes Wanda has made - the risks inherent in Thanos, ways to escape this, get out of this, return to help the team (even Stark, hateful Stark, he who saw Wanda imprisoned and treated like an animal and did nothing about it at all, once more proving his waste of his place in the world). Wanda would have them protect the world though, and Pietro knows why.

_(There is more to the world than just us, Pietro. Not all of them can fight as we do.)_

“He does not think we will fight for him,” Wanda says, words whispered softly as she sits beside her brother, watching the great ocean of stars around them. “But he thinks we will not dare return to the team. That after-”

The memory flashes across her mind, Vision crumpled, hemorrhaging his not-blood from the gaping hole in his brow.

“We chose them instead of Ultron. Now they think I have chosen Thanos instead.”

Pietro strokes back Wanda’s hair, lets her tuck against him, presses a kiss to her brow. “They do not know,” he says. “They will see.”

“Yes,” Wanda says. “And no matter what, we must fight.”

 

* * *

 

 **ix.**  
The Captain comes.

(Wanda, deep inside, knew the Captain would come.)

Steve is Steve, and even after all his mistakes he cares for his team, cares for those he calls his own. They know, now, where she has fled to, but she knows he is not here for her.

He is here to plea for Earth and all its people.

 

* * *

 

 **x.**  
He comes with no shield to stand at the foot of Thanos’ dais.

 _Stand_ , Wanda notices. _Not bow_.

Thanos considers him, laughingly casual. For Steve his shield is both shield _and_ sword, and he has come to parley with no weapons to speak of.

“Would it even be enough?” Steve says when asked. He shrugs. “I come with nothing to ask for what we should not have to ask for.”

There is something in the tilt of Thanos’ head, in his great tombstone smile, that says that _yes_ they _should_ have to ask for even this much.

“Please,” Steve says, and now, _now_ he drops to his knees. He looks tired. Looks heartsick. Looks as though he, the warrior who has fought through most of a century, who has fought for the very world, is tired of the fight. Is tired of war.

As though, despite what Wanda proved inside his head, despite what Ultron said, he wants a world without war.

 

* * *

 

 **xi.**  
Steve’s blood spills down the steps. Steve’s skin pales as he empties of blood.

On the steps, bowed before Thanos’ throne, Steve Rogers dies.

Wanda can see, far away, back on Earth, back in the base, back with the team, how this reverberates. They knew. They knew Steve was gone, that Steve might die.

They knew _when_ he died.

Wanda sees as something in all their heart’s breaks.

(Wanda sees how, in Bucky’s, something turns to stone, to steel, to the hard vibranium of Steve’s shield.)

(There has never been anything they would not do for each other.)

 

* * *

 

 **xii.**  
“They are going to come,” Wanda warns Pietro. She does not warn Thanos. Thanos has the stones, Thanos can see. Thanos has others on his side to tell him.

“They are going to come,” Wanda tells Pietro. “We must decide.”

Pietro tilts his head, smiles. “I have decided.”

“He may unmake you,” Wanda says, and Pietro sees the fear of it running through her mind, a million imaginings of Thanos raising his hand and wiping him from existence.

“I know.”

“He may hurt you,” Wanda says, and Pietro sees his death all over again, body riddled with bullets, metal digging into every essential organ and the pain that followed.

“I know.”

“He may try to keep you from me,” Wanda says, and Pietro bows his head to hers, presses a kiss to her brow.

“I know,” Pietro says. “I will not let him.”

Wanda watches the world arrayed below them, watches the warriors waiting out the night for the fight to come.

“When it happens,” she whispers, “No matter what, you must take the Gauntlet from him.”

Pietro knows what she is asking, knows what she is asking him to sacrifice.

(In the end, there has never been anything they would not do for each other.)

 

* * *

 

 **xiii.**  
Wanda can see it, the battle that is to come, can see the deaths coming, piling upon those which have already happened. Wanda can see it, the war about to wage, can see each loss that is yet to happen. Wanda can see it, can see it all, vision after vision of projected futures, possibility and probability and pure, unbridled chance.

Wanda reaches out, finds the threads of the future, feels where the Gauntlet has already touched each and every one of them.

Wanda thinks, _We are all going to die._

 

* * *

 

 **xiv.**  
Wanda sees Thanos aiming at Pietro’s blue, Pietro racing around the team, telling them over and over _is alright, we are here to help, we are on your side, your side really, he is weak here, go, fight,_ **_we are on your side_ ** **.**

Wanda, from her vantage point, sees Thanos aiming for her brother and something inside her _snaps_.

Scarlet, building up and out of her, rising from her gut, filling her to her throat, like blood and warmth and love and anger and pure, unbridled _fury_.

She has seen what these stones can do, make and unmake, warp the world more even than she can.

But Wanda’s powers came from one of those stones, her scarlet remembers how it felt to warp into Vision’s stone and make him release Clint, how it felt to wrap around the stone and tear it loose, can feel the Mind Stone, far across the field, crackling with power.

Wanda finds that power, Wanda holds it, Wanda pulls at all its strength.

 _No._ she thinks, scarlet flickering out of her like the flames of a forest fire, wild and uncontrollable. _You will not take my brother from me._

 

* * *

 

 **xv.**  
_No._ Wanda thinks, and it is absolute. Scarlet builds, scarlet lashes, scarlet directs the strike Thanos intended towards herself. Pietro’s blue darts and dives, sprinting towards her.

 _No._ she thinks, and she is absolute. _Take the Gauntlet_.

Pietro’s blue darts for Thanos. Thanos’ strike comes for her. Wanda’s scarlet _screams_.

(There has never been anything they would not do for each other.)

 

* * *

 

 **xvi.**  
Wanda has known she is powerful. Wanda has known this, has known this, has known this. Wanda has felt this power that sings in her blood, sings in her like Pietro’s speed sings to him, Wanda knows she is powerful. Wanda’s scarlet reaches out, finds each thread of power from each of the stones and unmakes that which would unmake her, spreading each of the six threads out over an arcing shield of red.

“No,” Wanda says, and grasps her power - wild, bucking, refusing to be tamed - with both hands.

 

* * *

 

 **xvii.**  
Pietro knows he is fast, but he is not this fast, not usually and he can _feel_ , feel something warping around him as Wanda’s scarlet screams against the bolt of energy sent by the Gauntlet. (Wanda’s scarlet screams and he knows it will soon crumple.)

Around him, space twists and turns as blue shines over them all and Pietro sprints for the Gauntlet.

There has never been anything they would not do for each other.

 

* * *

 

 **xviii.**  
Natasha is leaping for Thanos’ back as the black-blood-red layers over everything, changing reality, making stable a landing that should have left her swinging. Natasha takes only a moment to use the pulsing power of the Stone around them to strike again and again and again.

 

* * *

 

 **xix.**  
Bucky is throwing the shield (Steve’s shield). He knows how it feels, the precise weight, the balance, exactly the force it needs.

Bucky feels the purple power fill him as he flings the shield with all his strength.

 

* * *

 

 **xx.**  
Sam feels what can only be Wanda’s mind against his as his world is turned rich yellow, as bright and shining as the summer sun. _No._ says the mind, loud and clear and absolute as thunder. Sam flies higher, aims with absolute certainty.

 _I’m sorry,_ comes from Wanda’s mind, soft and gentle in all the chaos, and is met by his response.

 _We have to win this_.

 

* * *

 

 **xxi.**  
Rhodey dodges a bolt of light, twists his suit and he can feel how much extra weight he’s having to throw into all of this to make it work, to make up for how he can barely use his legs still.

Then green illuminates his world and his heart swells with certainty. He swings his weight, twists his suit and his legs fall into line, perfect as though he can use them as he used to. (It doesn’t matter if he can’t use them as he used to. He has this suit. He has his purpose. _They have to win this fight_.)

 

* * *

 

 **xxii.**  
Tony sees the light of all colours hitting his teammates, bathing their worlds in set colour, changing the properties of it all. He can see the witch, high above it all, scarlet screaming as it streams out of her. Her brother’s blue is darting over the field and he’s heard the whispers over comms, _trust us, trust us, we fight for you, we fight against Thanos, we are here to_ **_help_ ** _._

Tony doesn’t know if he believes it. Around him time is warping, crystallising like perfect orange amber around him, slowing down so he can see every instant, every weapon aimed at his friends while he is too slow to do anything.

Pietro’s words come down comms as he repeats himself to Bucky. _We have to win this_.

Tony hovers as time slows still more around him, and aims his repulsors.

 

* * *

 

 **xxiii.**  
The battle is a riot of colour, Wanda’s scarlet screaming bright and bold against the rainbow offered by Thanos’ Gauntlet.

It is too much, the Gauntlet, too strong. She can deflect it once, refract it into its individual streams, but she cannot stand against it, not forever.

Thanos though. She can stand against him.

 _Pietro_ , she thinks, and sees her brother’s blue pause just a moment.

“Pietro,” she whispers, readying her scarlet to loose in destruction. “Now.”

 

* * *

 

 **xxiv.**  
Pietro leaps.

 

* * *

 

 **xxv.**  
Wanda falls.

 

* * *

 

 **xxvi.**  
Every strike meets its mark.

 

* * *

 

 **xxvii.**  
There is, for several long moments, silence. Steve’s shield rings softly against the ground as it spins flat. Thanos, crumbling, falls into dust. Tony and Rhodey cut out their repulsors, setting down on the ground. Sam lands next to Bucky, feet as quiet as the rotors in Bucky’s arm. Natasha’s feet are as soft as whispers on the hard stone.

The Gauntlet is thrown to one side, as Pietro cradles his sister.

 

* * *

 

 **xxviii.**  
“It was the price,” Pietro says, holding his sister. “To bring me back. Wanda had to bring him the Mind Stone.”

Wanda, now, is limp in his arms, skin pale, deep bags beneath her eyes. Pietro can see the bruises from where she landed as they form on her arms, her hands, her shoulders. _Wanda_ , he thinks, and presses a kiss to her hair.

Wanda coughs into wakefulness.

 

* * *

 

 **xxix.**  
It is Wanda who slips the stone back into Vision’s brow, scarlet cradling it gently once again. Her scarlet presses into his flesh, finds how it weaves together and knits back vibranium skin around the stone.

“I’m sorry,” she whispers, fingers gently skimming over his brow. “But there has never been anything we would not do for each other.”

 

* * *

 

 **xxx.**  
The Tesseract is remade. The Aether re-hidden, the Orb allowed to encase its stone once more. The stones are resecured, tucked away into obscurity excepting the stone on Vision’s brow.

But the remaking, of the world, of peace, of whole cities and individual lives, the rebuilding of friendships broken and lives with gaping holes…

That yet would take time.

 

* * *

 

**Author's Note:**

> Comments are always much appreciated!

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Defy or Deify](https://archiveofourown.org/works/7676590) by [EssayOfThoughts](https://archiveofourown.org/users/EssayOfThoughts/pseuds/EssayOfThoughts)




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